Christa, Day 41: This Goes Here, That Goes There

Have a place for everything. Age-old advice, but it’s the best advice on keeping things organized. After you declutter. Read more here.

Or don't since the link is borked. Maybe Leo originally linked to this article, which was then at a different URL? It seems as good as any for making clear the benefits of having a place for every little thing. Which is easy, I suppose, when you're a minimalist. But when you're not, trying to find a, as in one, place for everything could very well require a spreadsheet. In the article I linked, I could name the location of everything except for my 2009 tax docs. Most likely, they're in the filing cabinet. Most likely. But everything in the post falls into the category "essentials." There's the minimalism again. If you asked me to pinpoint the location of, say, the glue sticks for my hot glue gun, the spray paint for my daughter's outdoor chair project, my rollerblades, and my wedding guestbook, I don't know if I'd be so sure of my answers.

I think that as one pares down and gets closer to living in a household that is focused on mostly essentials followed by a few things of beauty followed by toys (for the parents among you), it becomes easier to find a place for everything and put everything in its place.

It's something I was thinking about today as I washed a few dinner dishes and wiped down my stove. Specifically, how clean my kitchen has been lately, and my living room, too. Tidying up before a gathering of friends was easy last week, and the laundry is getting put away faster than every before. There has simply been less to clean and organize since I began the 72 Ideas in 72 Days Project, and I'm loving the change. I think I feel lighter, maybe even happier. Less stuff has translated into less to worry about - less to find a permanent place for somewhere under my tiny roof.

We're not perfect, by any stretch. There's still plenty in the house that has no place and plenty that still needs to be purged. I'm rather jealous of all the people who can give away or consign their baby gear without a second thought - we'd like to have another baby someday and so have kept everything from gear to clothes and it takes up a lot of space. It will be sad when my baby-making days are over, but on the other hand it will be awesome to slowly give away all the wee onesies when we don't need them anymore.

I don't have any real actionable item to speak of today. Just more of the same: decluttering, organizing, purging, and reorganizing!